Link Scheduling for Multiple Multicast Sessions in Distributed Wireless Networks

Abstract: In this letter we investigate link scheduling algorithms for throughput maximization in multicast wireless networks. According to our system model, each source node transmits to a multicast group that resides one hop away. We adopt the physical interference model to reflect the aggregate signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) at each node of the multicast group. We present an ILP formulation of the aforementioned problem. The basic feature of the problem formulation is that it decomposes the single multicast session into the corresponding point-to-point links. The rationale is that a solution algorithm has more flexibility regarding the scheduling options for individual nodes. The extended MILP problem that also considers power control is solved with LP relaxation. Performance results for both the ILP and MILP problems are obtained for different traffic loads and different number of nodes per multicast group.